Snow..

Well it snowed up by my apartment. It snowed last year as well, but not this much. This is a day later, some has melted now that the sun is out again, but there's still a lot left. Here are some crappy pics from my cell phone.

It's Christmas time again..

So, this weekend has been pretty fun. Avelyn and I went with my mom to go see Madagascar 2. Avelyn loved it, and it was a good movie. She keeps walking around singing "I like to move it, move it.. MOVE IT!" haha. We also went to Wal-Mart and got a Christmas tree. I had to do some kind of decorating here to make it exciting for Avelyn since I most likely won't be having her for Christmas this year. The tree is only like 3 feet tall though. I was planning to stick it on our bar-stool style counter top, but it looked huge up there so I just put it on the floor, and now it looks tiny. Oh well. I took some pictures of it and of some cute window decals we put up. Avelyn loved helping and she's really excited for Christmas and Santa. : )

I'm actually looking forward to the Holidays this year. Not sure why.. it's usually just one of those things you go through by habit each year, but this year is different.. it's exciting. Maybe I'm looking forward to the New Year and making it a good one.

Birthday

I went with my best friend Kerri to see The Classic Crime play in Hollywood for my birthday lastnight. It was so much fun! There were only like 35 people in the whole place and we got to hang out and take pictures with the band after. I even got a birthday kiss (just on the cheek),from the drummer, but he smelled like beef and cheese so it wasn't that cool. We got lost a few times after the show because the freeways were being worked on and we couldn't find a way to get on. I didn't get home until really late, got only a few hours of sleep and had to come to work the next day, but it was still great!

Halloween..

So Avelyn was a witch for Halloween this year. She was so excited to get to wear her costume. She had been asking me every day for the last 2 weeks if she could wear it. She even practiced an evil little witch laugh that she was very thrilled about. We went trick-or-treating and after walking about 2 blocks she wanted to go home. haha.

Road trip to Arizona

Avelyn and I drove with my mom out to Arizona on Friday. We went to celebrate my niece (Janalee's) 1st birthday, and to say bye to my brother Shaun and his wife Elisha who are moving to Michigan next week. Aaron and Tiffany made the drive from Vegas to be there as well, (with my favorite nephew Ashton). : ) He's such a cute little butterball.

Due to the 5 1/2 hour drive, we didn't get to spend much time with them Friday night. We got there pretty late and ended up getting only 5 hours of sleep (including Avelyn), but we all went out to breakfast together on Saturday morning and then had the birthday party later that day. Avelyn had so much fun playing with Janalee and all of the other kids there. It is unbelievable how much energy Janalee has. She reminds me of the energizer bunny, you get tired just watching her.

Avelyn tends to test my authority when we are away from home, and did throw a few tantrums, but for the most part she was very well behaved. She did not complain on the drive there or back. We were very pleased at how much of a trooper she is when traveling. We had a portable DVD player CJ got for us to use for Avelyn when traveling, but it broke, so poor Avelyn didn't have much to keep her entertained. She sang random silly songs that she thought were hilarious and cracked herself up. She's so funny.

What I love most about traveling, is Vanilla Coke!!! Here in so Cal I have not been able to find places that sell it anymore. Whenever I go to Utah or drive out to Vegas, I can find it in gas stations, and I was able to find it in Arizona too. What's wrong with California?? seriously. I had to buy a few extra to bring home. hehe.

Now on a more serious note, on the drive to Arizona, I got a text from CJ saying that his dad had passed away earlier that day. Anyone who would be so kind as to say a prayer for him and his family, I'm sure they could use it. My heart goes out to them during this hard time. It's a very strange situation to be involved in considering what has been going on with CJ and I. I do wish there were more I could do.

Now that we are back home I'm just getting caught up with laundry and other house tasks I wasn't able to get done over the weekend. Fun times. 'Til next time.. keep smiling everyone! : )

It's been a while..

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Things have been rather busy. I've been taking some classes two nights a week, so when you add being a single mom and working full time into that it ends up being pretty demanding. However, things have been pretty good. Avelyn keeps getting smarter and smarter and just amazing me every day. It's really neat watching her learn and grow up. Last weekend we went to the Route 66 car show that is held here in San Bernardino annually. I didn't take any pictures of the cars, but they have some cool kid rides that Avelyn got to enjoy. She wasn't too thrilled with the cars as you can imagine. Aside from that we haven't been up to much. We usually go swimming on Saturdays and just hang out. We're looking forward to going to Arizona next weekend to say bye to Shaun Elisha and Janalee before they move to Michigan. We'll also be celebrating Janalee's 1st b-day! Times with family are always great. So until then I probably won't be posting again..

Avelyn

Here are a few pics from the session I took Avelyn to for her 3 yr. pictures.

Baby Ashton!!

So this past weekend Avelyn and I drove to Las Vegas with my mom to go see Aaron and Tiff, along with the latest addition to the family, Ashton! He is so cute! I'm so glad Aaron and Tiff finally got to have a baby. Tiff seems so happy and you can tell she really loves being a mom. Avelyn just loved Ashton, she was so excited to get to go seem him, and once we got home she was already saying she wanted to see him again. She loves babies and is so good with them. It kind of makes me wish I could have another sometimes.

We were able to go out to dinner and do some star gazing with Aaron's new telescope on Saturday night. I didn't get any pictures though since it was so dark. On Sunday we got to go to Ashton's baby blessing, and Avelyn got to play on Aaron's computer. No wonder she thinks he's so cool. Haha. It was a pretty short trip... hopefully we'll be able to go back before too long.

Avelyn's Birthday!!

Well, Avelyn turned the big number 3 on Saturday. What happened to my little baby? I actually can't even remember her as a baby. And though I do miss the sweet cuddly stage, I must say the whole not having to change diapers part is great. She's actually learning to dress herself now too. I'm so lucky to have such a special little girl.. she's so sweet and funny and is always there to make me smile, laugh, and be proud when I need it. She's more than I could have ever asked for. I can't wait to keep growing closer together as she gets older as well. Awwww how sappy. : )

So, back to the party. I was going to get Avelyn one of those cool jumpers, but to have it at the park like I wanted, I was going to have to get $2 million dollars in insurance, and all of this other nonsense. So, I ended up just deciding at the last minute to throw a swim party for her at my mom's house with a few friends. It turned out really well. She got TONS of gifts, and had a blast along with all of the other kids. My bestest girlfriend Kerri (Aunt Kerri), was able to come to Avelyn's party too since she just moved back from Texas. It was a great day.

Utah trip

Here are some pics of Avie when we went up to Utah last month. I never got around to posting them since I took our old blog down. When we were up there we took Avelyn to a little gym type play place that has a ton of jumpers for kids. She had a blast! We also got to see Kris' new place and play some rockband with him. It was Avelyn's first plane ride too. She fell asleep and managed to remain asleep all the way through the landing some how.